An editorial from The Corner Brook Western Star that was republished in the Winnipeg Free Press asks why anyone, including animal rights activists, should care about the Canadian Fisheries Department's quota of 400,000 seals when it's doubtful that anywhere near that number will be killed. The paper argues, "Scientists and the animal-rights people say the size of the herds is falling and the quota should have been reduced. That only matters if the quota is taken, and it won't be." The problem is that no one can predict how many seals will be killed.
As the editorial correctly points out, the seals will have fewer pups this year because of the lack of sea ice. It is believed that there will also be fewer sealers out because of shrinking markets and increasing costs. The European Union banned the importation and sale of seal products in 2009. In the United States, the Marine Mammal Protection Act banned the importation of seal products in 1972.
According to the Humane Society International, a Canadian government scientist called for a reduction of the seal hunt quota to 100,000 a few weeks ago because of the impact of climate change on the seal population. HSI is calling on the Canadian government to end the hunt and buy out the sealers.
Why are sealers allowed to kill any seals at all if the seals' survival is being threatened by climate change? And regardless of whether one cares about seals or their rights, the limit should reflect the reduced seal population. The purpose of a quota is to protect the seal population. Why set a quota at all if the Fisheries Department is going to set a scientifically unjustified quota?
What you can do: Various organizations are calling for a boycott of Canadian fisheries, but such a boycott is problematic from an animal rights perspective because it implies that eating non-Canadian fish is acceptable. Harpseals.org, of which my friend Diana Marmorstein is the CEO, is coordinating events around the world, including protests in Calgary, Alberta and Boston, MA on March 31.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
- EU Bans Commercial Import and Sale of Seal Products
- Baby Seals Clubbed for Fur
- Canadian Seal Hunt is Dying
- Canada's Governor General Eats Slice of Seal Heart
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